One of the most crucial aspects of getting the economy back up and running is proper testing.
If you look at the key considerations for many states when it comes to opening up the economies, testing is usually at the top. We need widespread testing across the country and we also need to be able to trace contacts in order to curtail the spread of the virus once we begin to open things back up.
Luckily, testing just took a major step forward with some great news.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just allowed Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for at home testing for the coronavirus.
The test will use nasal swab specimens that can be collected at home using the Pixel by LabCorp COVID-19 test home collection kit.
Individuals will be given a COVID-19 questionnaire and if recommended by a healthcare provider, they will proceed to receive the home collection kit for testing.
Initially, these tests and kits will be made available to healthcare providers and first responders who may have been exposed to COVID-19 or may be symptomatic.
This makes a lot of sense considering that those are the individuals coming into contact with sick patients on a regular basis and if they are carriers of the virus, they could end up spreading it to many people in a short amount of time.
The tests can also decrease the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) since the tests do not require a clinician to perform the test collection. So the approval of these new tests will have substantial benefit for those in the healthcare industry.
But what about the general public?
The great news is that, “LabCorp intends to make COVID-19 self-collection kits available to consumers in the coming weeks.”
So we are now seeing testing for active infections and also testing for antibodies becoming more readily available to the masses. Both of those things are going to help us prevent a second wave from emerging as we get ready to reopen the economy in the next month or two.
Read more about the press release here.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.